The Dark Tower I: The Gunslinger

Stephen King's epic fantasy series, The Dark Tower, is being made into a major movie starring Idris Elba and Matthew McConaughey. Due in cinemas February 17, 2017 USA. In this first novel in his epic fantasy masterpiece, Stephen King introduces listeners to one of his most enigmatic heroes, Roland of Gilead, the Last Gunslinger. He is a haunting figure, a loner, on a spellbinding journey into good and evil, in a desolate world which frighteningly echoes our own.

The Eyes of the Dragon

Everyone in the kingdom talked about the King-in-waiting, Roland's elder son, Peter. And one man thought and planned and brooded on something else: how to make sure that Roland's younger son, Thomas, should be crowned King instead. The King is dead, murdered by an unusual poison. While evidence is gathered, and the land of Delain mourns, Flagg the King's magician, unscrupulous, greedy and powerful, plots.

The Stand

First came the days of the plague. Then came the dreams. Dark dreams that warned of the coming of the dark man. The apostate of death, his worn-down boot heels tramping the night roads. The warlord of the charnel house and Prince of Evil. His time is at hand. His empire grows in the west and the Apocalypse looms. For hundreds of thousands of fans who read The Stand in its original version and wanted more, this new edition is Stephen King's gift.

Insomnia

You'll lose a lot of sleep.... Ralph does. At first he starts waking up earlier. And earlier. Then the hallucinations start - the colours, shapes and strange auras. Not to mention the bald doctors who always turn up at the scene of a death. That's when Ralph begins to lose a lot more than sleep. When he begins to understand why his hitherto mild-mannered friend, Ed, is getting out of control - dangerously so. And why his hometown is about to become the new Armageddon....

Everything's Eventual

In this eerie, enchanting compilation, Stephen King takes listeners down a road less travelled (for good reason) in the gripping 'Riding the Bullet'. Terror becomes déjà vu all over again when you get 'That Feeling, You Can Only Say What It Is in French'. 'LT's Theory of Pets' will make you stop and think before giving a dog to a loved one. And there are 11 more stories that will keep you awake until dawn.

Cujo

Once upon a time, not so long ago, a monster came to the small town of Castle Rock, Maine.... He was not a werewolf, a vampire, a ghoul, or an unnameable creature from the enchanted forest or snow wastes; he was only a cop.... Cujo is a huge Saint Bernard dog, the best friend Brett Camber has ever had. Then one day Cujo chases a rabbit into a bolt-hole. Except it isn't a rabbit warren anymore. It is a cave inhabited by rabid bats. And Cujo falls sick. Very sick.

Salem's Lot

A superb novel set in classic Stephen King territory - a small new England town about to be engulfed by terror. Turn off the television - in fact, why don't you turn off all the lights except for the one over your favourite chair? - and we'll talk about vampires here in the dim. I think I can make you believe in them. Stephen King, from the introduction. Salem's Lot is a small New England town with the usual quota of gossips, drinkers, weirdos and respectable folk.

Mile 81

A Stephen King original short story featuring an excerpt from 11.22.63, his latest full-length novel. With the heart of Stand by Me and the genius horror of Christine, Mile 81 is Stephen King unleashing his imagination as he drives past one of those road signs.... At Mile 81 on the Maine Turnpike is a boarded-up rest stop, a place where high-school kids drink and get into the kind of trouble high-school kids have always gotten into....

Sleeping Beauties

In a future so real and near it might be now, something happens when women go to sleep: they become shrouded in a cocoon-like gauze. If they are awakened, if the gauze wrapping their bodies is disturbed or violated, the women become feral and spectacularly violent, and while they sleep they go to another place....

Danse Macabre

It was not long after Halloween when Stephen King received a telephone call from his editor. 'Why don't you do a book about the entire horror phenomenon as you see it? Books, movies, radio, TV, the whole thing.' The result is this unique combination of fantasy and autobiography, of classic horror writing honed to an unforgettable edge by the best-selling master of the genre.

The Scarlet Gospels

The gates to hell are open, and something beckons.... The last of Earth's magicians are living in fear. A Cenobite Hell Priest known as Pinhead is killing them off, gorging on their knowledge to enhance his own magical powers as part of a quest to takeover hell. Meanwhile Private Investigator Harry D'Amour is fulfilling the final wishes of the dead, who communicate with his business associate, the blind medium Norma Paine.

It

To the children, the town was their whole world. To the adults, knowing better, Derry, Maine, was just their hometown: familiar, well ordered for the most part. A good place to live. It was the children who saw - and felt - what made Derry so horribly different. In the storm drains, in the sewers, IT lurked, taking on the shape of every nightmare, each one's deepest dread. Sometimes IT reached up, seizing, tearing, killing....

From a Buick 8

For 20 years the officers in the Pennsylvania State Police Barracks have kept a secret in Shed B: a vintage Buick which lures the troopers to come and take a look. Young Ned Wilcox, son of the recently deceased officer Curt, has started hanging around the Barracks. One day he can't resist peeking through the windows. And it's time to share the secret....

Doctor Sleep

Stephen King says he wanted to know what happened to Danny Torrance, the boy at the heart of The Shining, after his terrible experience in the Overlook Hotel. The instantly riveting Doctor Sleep picks up the story of the now middle-aged Dan, working at a hospice in rural New Hampshire, and the very special 12-year old girl he must save from a tribe of murderous paranormals.

Skeleton Crew

Hold tight. We are going into a number of dark places, but I think I know the way. Just don't let go of my arm.... Unrivalled master of suspense Stephen King takes the unsuspecting listener on a fantastic journey through the dark shadows of our innermost fears.

The Way of Kings: The Stormlight Archive

According to mythology mankind used to live in The Tranquiline Halls. Heaven. But then the Voidbringers assaulted and captured heaven, casting out God and men. Men took root on Roshar, the world of storms, but the Voidbringers followed. The Almighty gave men powerful suits of armor and mystical weapons, the Shardblades. Led by ten angelic Heralds and ten orders of knights known as Radiants, mankind finally won (or so the legends say).

Under the Dome

In Stephen King's mesmerizing new masterpiece - his biggest, most riveting novel since The Stand - a Maine town and its inhabitants are isolated from the world by an invisible, impenetrable dome. Celebrated storyteller Stephen King returns to his roots in this tour de force featuring more than 100 characters - some heroic, some diabolical - and a supernatural element as baffling and chilling as any he's ever conjured.

Needful Things

There was a new shop in town. Run by a stranger. Needful Things, the sign said. The oddest name. A name that caused some gossip and speculation among the good folks of Castle Rock, Maine, while they waited for opening day. Eleven-year-old Brian Rusk was the first customer and he got just what he wanted, a very rare 1956 Sandy Koufax baseball card. Signed. Cyndi Rose Martin was next. A Lalique vase. A perfect match for her living room decor. Something for everyone.

The Tommyknockers

Everything is familiar. But everything has changed. Coming back to the little community is like walking into a nightmare for Jim Gardener, poet, drunk, potential suicide. It all looks the same: the house; the furniture; Jim's friend, Bobbi; her beagle (though ageing); even the woods out at the back. But it was in the woods that Bobbi stumbled over the odd, part-buried object and felt a peculiar tingle as she brushed the soft earth away. Everything is familiar. But everything is about to change.

Artemis

Jazz Bashara is a criminal. Well, sort of. Life on Artemis, the first and only city on the moon, is tough if you're not a rich tourist or an eccentric billionaire. So smuggling in the occasional harmless bit of contraband barely counts, right? Not when you've got debts to pay and your job as a porter barely covers the rent. Everything changes when Jazz sees the chance to commit the perfect crime, with a reward too lucrative to turn down.

Roadwork

A lone man takes on the wheels of progress in a showdown of cataclysmic proportions. When a highway project puts him out of work and threatens to destroy his home, he has more than enough time on his hands to plot his revenge. Driving his wife and friends away with his growing obsession, he pushes the powers that be to the limit, taking a stand against what he sees as a criminal act in progress. Building to a shattering climax, this is a suspenseful tale you won't soon forget.

Gerald's Game

A game. A husband and wife game. Gerald's Game. But this time Jesse didn't want to play. Lying there, spread-eagled and handcuffed to the bedstead while he'd loomed and drooled over her, she'd felt angry and humiliated. So she'd kicked out hard. Aimed to hit him where it hurt. He wasn't meant to die, leaving Jesse alone and helpless in a lakeside holiday cabin. Miles from anywhere. No one to hear her screams.

20th Century Ghosts, Volume 1

Imogene is young, beautiful, kisses like a movie star, and knows everything about every film ever made. She's also dead, the legendary ghost of the Rosebud Theater. Arthur Roth is a lonely kid with a head full of big ideas and a gift for getting his ass kicked. It's hard to make friends when you're the only inflatable boy in town. Francis is unhappy, picked on; he doesn't have a life, a hope, a chance. Francis was human once, but that's behind him now.

Publisher's Summary

Stephen King's epic fantasy series, The Dark Tower, is being made into a major movie starring Idris Elba and Matthew McConaughey. Due in cinemas February 17, 2017 USA.

In the fourth powerful novel in Stephen King's best-selling fantasy quest, The Dark Tower beckons Roland, the Last Gunslinger, and the four companions he has gathered along the road.

And, having narrowly escaped one world, they set out on a terrifying journey across the scarred urban wasteland to brave a new world where hidden dangers lie at every junction: a malevolent computer-run monorail hurtling towards self-destruction, Roland's relentlessly cunning old enemy, and the temptation of the wizard's diabolical glass ball, a powerful force in Roland's first love affair. A tale of long-ago love and adventure involving a beautiful and quixotic woman named Susan Delgado.

Stephen King has created an interesting group of charactors and some wonderful lands. This book is number four but is a prequel to the books before. The story is based around a young Roland and sets up the story brilliantly. Action packed could even read it as a stand alone book. Really enjoy the dark tower books.

What other book might you compare The Dark Tower IV: Wizard and Glass to, and why?

Roland's blossoming relationship with Susan Delgado. Also, the relationship with Roland's original Ka-Tet of Owain and Cuthbert. You understand a lot of Roland's motivations and why he is the way he is from the events in this story.

What did you like best about this story?

Roland showing how smart and astute he is despite his distraction with Susan Delgado. Also that he can demonstrate the difference between a gunslinger and those who failed the test and are outcast.

Which character – as performed by Frank Muller – was your favourite?

I enjoyed Cuthbert Allgood's character and Frank's performance of it. It is slightly distracting hearing the name pronounced differently to how I expect to hear it though. Not that it is Frank's fault because King confirmed that it should be pronounced "Key-ooth-bert" instead of "Cuth-bert" as I'd expect. On a related note, King pronounces Deschain as "Des-chain" whereas Frank (and I) would pronounce it more French as in "Desh-ain". I only mention it as King reads "The Wind Through the Keyhole" himself.

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

Naturally, the death of Susan Delgado (No spoiler there because it's confirmed in earlier books) and the fear for Sheemie's life.

Any additional comments?

A brilliant story that gives us the background of Roland's life before his quest for the Dark Tower. I think that "The Drawing of the Three" is a better story but many would disagree. Definitely worth reading as a King fan even if you dislike the Dark Tower series.

I like value for money on a purchase and this book has it in spades. Never dull or lacking pace, I'm not even a King fan, or wasn't but must now accept him to be a masterful storyteller. I will immediately be downloading the next.

I have been an avid fan of Stephen King for 40yrs but never fancied reading the Dark Tower series for some reason, decided on a whim to listen instead. Well, what can I say, have missed out all this time on a great yarn. I'm trying to to temper my listening because I don't want it to end!!

Loved the flash back of Roland's first love, at first I didn't want to leave the present and the main characters of the series, but then I didn't want to leave Hambry and come back. Frank Muller gets 5 stars for narration!

2 of 2 people found this review helpful

Mr Brian Scully

05/08/17

Overall

Performance

Story

"Tough going"

A good continuation of the story, if only because it is a continuation albeit split in two, but the extended flash back that took up the largest portion of the book was odd, unevenly paced, far too long and not really enjoyable as a story, especially compared to the last two books. There is of course some wonderful world building all over it and the rest of the book outside of the flash back make it an essential read for those insisting of getting into these books. Here's hoping the next one is better.

Another richly imagined world full of memorable characters that blur the boundaries between good and evil. This is the basis of all Stephen King stories. It makes you ponder the grey areas of ethical decisions and the hold that Ka seems to have on all of us. A must read for the whole of Roland's story.

0 of 0 people found this review helpful

Sivitrii

Zillmere, Australia

09/08/14

Overall

Performance

Story

"Everyone loves a flashback episode"

I really enjoyed this book, it tells an excellent story from the formative years in Roland's past without truly revealing as much as it brings up new questions. We really get the 'western' feel from this story, which blends beautifully with the medieval upbringing of Roland's childhood and immediate future.

0 of 0 people found this review helpful

Amanda Quick

Toronto, NSW Australia

02/03/14

Overall

Performance

Story

"Expectedly brilliant"

King is a gifted writer who builds great castles with a few bricks, but not everybody wants to meet the shadows in all his many tales. Those who do revel in his gift and are never disappointed.

0 of 0 people found this review helpful

Liz

Ocean Grove, Australia

04/06/13

Overall

Performance

Story

"Disappointing Detour"

One good thing I can say is that the cliffhanger from the previous book was resolved.

I have been enjoying this series very much and of course I wanted some information on the background. Especially the back stories that made the characters who and what they are. My disappointment arises because this book in the series has taken me away from the main story almost completely. Yes it fills in some gaps but much more than I needed. I am more interested in what is supposed to be happening now. It's like a novel inside a novel that I wasn't expecting to read and didn't really want to.

It's not a 100% bad story but compared to the excitement, suspense, character development and plot building of other books so far in the series it's fairly boring. I even felt that the characters were bored. Teenage love story ends in tragedy - well we already knew this from reading the first three books in the series so no surprises there.

Frank Muller - brilliant as usual.

0 of 0 people found this review helpful

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